The present invention generally relates to cases for accommodating rotary recording mediums, and more particularly to a case having a configuration such that manufacturing of the case is facilitated, and is used in a reproducing apparatus of a type in which the rotary recording medium is left within the reproducing apparatus in a state possible for performing reproduction by an operation in which the rotary recording medium is inserted into and then pulled out from the reproducing apparatus.
Conventionally, cases for accommodating a rotary recording medium (hereinafter simply referred to as a disc) such as a video disc recorded with a video signal, and an audio disc recorded with pulse code modulated (PCM) audio signals, have been proposed. In this type of a disc case, the disc is left at a predetermined position within the reproducing apparatus by performing an operation in which a case accommodating a disc therein is inserted into and then pulled out from the reproducing apparatus. The disc within the reproducing apparatus can be recovered into the case by an operation in which an empty case is inserted into and then pulled out from the reproducing apparatus.
A disc case of the above described type was proposed in a U.S. patent application Ser. No. 229,303 entitled "CASE FOR A DISC-SHAPED RECORDING MEDIUM" filed on Jan. 28, 1981, in which the assignee is the same as that of the present application. This proposed disc case is assembled from upper and lower jacket halves. Moreover, the disc case consists of a jacket having a space for accommodating the disc therein, and an opening through which the disc can enter and leave the jacket. The above disc case further consists of a lid member connected to the opening of the jacket in a freely detachable manner.
However, in the disc case of the above type, the upper and lower jacket halves which are assembled to construct the jacket are of a relatively large size, due to the size of the disc which is to be accommodated within the case. Moreover, these jacket halves are ejection moulded products formed from a synthetic resin. Accordingly, a large mould die is required and the ejection mould apparatus as a whole became an apparatus of a large scale. Hence, the cost of the production equipment became high. Furthermore, the production efficiency is not high, since the ejection moulding is performed by use of the mould die having a large size, requiring substantial time for forming one jacket half. Therefore, there was a disadvantage in that the cost of the disc case became high due to the above described reasons.